Room-temperature operation of a titanium supersaturated silicon-based infrared photodetector

We report room-temperature operation of 1 x 1 cm(2) infrared photoconductive photodetectors based on silicon supersaturated with titanium. We have fabricated these Si-based infrared photodetectors devices by means of ion implantation followed by a pulsed laser melting process. A high sub-band gap responsivity of 34 mVW(-1) has been obtained operating at the useful telecommunication applications wavelength of 1.55 mu m (0.8 eV). The sub-band gap responsivity shows a cut-off frequency as high as 1.9 kHz. These Si-based devices exhibit a non-previous reported specific detectivity of 1.7 x 10(4) cm Hz(1/2) W-1 at 660Hz, under a 1.55 mu m wavelength light. This work shows the potential of Ti supersaturated Si as a fully CMOS-compatible material for the infrared photodetection technology